Ready to jump into your novel? Already jumped and are drowning? Here are some questions you might want to ask. And here’s a way to learn from the experts: those who have been successful at this gig we call writing.

Gilligan’s Island comes to mind right away. Talk about limiting your story options.

Trivia– Mister Howell was the voice of Mister Magoo. And Mrs. Howell only agreed to do the pilot because it was being filmed in Hawaii. She, too, thought the premise wouldn’t work.

How did they manage to keep coming up with stories with just seven characters stuck on an island? And they didn’t seem to be suffering too much there. That boat sure carried a lot in it. And of course, it birth the “Ginger or Mary Ann?” BTW, Racquel Welch also auditioned for that role. Which is kind of hard to believe. And polls consistently go: Mary Ann.

Then there are some others. Bosom Buddies. Yes, Tom Hanks was in it. Seriously– people believed they were women?

The Greatest American Hero didn’t make much sense but the theme song was a hit.

There’s always The Flying Nun. Didn’t her neck hurt?

Notice I’m not covering any recent TV, but there have been some really terrible ideas put out there. Time will tell what succeeds.

We’re used to print covers, the standard 2 to 3 ratio, and for the cover to stand alone, hopefully facing out in a book store (although that only happens for the big-name authors—or after an author visits a book store and turns their own books out—come on, you do it; you know you do).

I’ve been going through my covers and updating them. The vast majority of my sales are eBook. My print sales are also via an electronic platforms, so the covers are viewed the same way, on screen, in thumbnail.

Besides the thumbnail aspect, here is something else that is different:

A print cover for hardcover has information inside, on the cover flap and some on the back.

A trade or mass market paperback has information on the back.

An eBook cover has information next to it on the screen. So the two are connected.

The bottom line is that a cover must invite the reader to want to know more. For a physical book, that means picking it up, looking at the flap or back copy. Reading the first few pages (some sick individuals read the last few).

For an eBook the goal is to get them to stay on the page and shift over and read the information that is there. Or to read inside the book, and only the first pages, which requires them to click on the cover—which also enlarges it.

I’ve been researching and there are a lot of good ideas out there.

For series, have some similarity. So I’ve done that.

Have a central image that grabs.

The cover should give the reader an idea what genre the book is. The cover should also give the reader an idea what the book is about. This one is hard, especially when you have a book that isn’t easily defined. My Atlantis books were hard for Berkley books and they’ve been hard for me in terms of cover.

They say don’t use a white background, but I like the way the Shadow Warriors book pop.

I’ve added blurbs to some of my books from legitimate reviews. While hard to read, they become clear if the cover is expanded. One goal in this day of hundreds of thousands of eBooks being uploaded yearly, is to get readers to know that your book is professional. This means using my Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, Library Journal, etc review blurbs. Of course, do readers care?

I use the classic NY Times Bestseller, but also, in some cases sales numbers, especially if they’ve gone into 7 figures such as the Area 51 and Atlantis series. In some other cases I’ve added my overall sales, saying Over 4 Million Sold, although I think I’m over 5 now—just haven’t crunched the numbers. Essentially an attempt to distinguish the books.

I’ve used some effects from Affinity Designer. In particular, I’ve used ‘emboss’ to give a 3D effect on some of the covers. In some ways it makes the cover look more like a button on the screen than a flat cover. I don’t know if that attracts or is a turn off to the reader.

Do contrasts. Things that don’t belong together. How does a crystal skull connect to Custer’s Last Stand? How does an Osprey over Pickett’s charge go together? The answer is in the stories, but I also have the concern on these two that in thumbnail there are too crowded. Thinking about it.

All of this will take time to tell if it has any effect. I’ll give it a couple of months and compare sales figures.

As important, my next phase is a complete do-over of Key Words and Categories. I need to research this area and then go through all 71 (or more) books.

Then, of course, when in doubt, use a dog. Especially a dog as distinguished as Cool Gus. After all, he’s more popular than I am.

Woody Guthrie wrote these words in 1942 in his song about the USS Reuben James. The first American warship sunk in World War II; even before we were officially at war and five week before Pearl Harbor.

It was torpedoed in the North Atlantic while on convoy escort duty. The ship was sunk on 31 October, 1941– Hallows Eve and is one of the six missions in that book coming out this fall.

“Tell me what were their names, tell me what were their names?”

That’s the refrain in the song. Guthrie wanted to list all the names of those lost with the ship in the song; but with over 100 men going down with her, it wasn’t practical.

He’s pictured to the left with his guitar and his infamous logo.

The captain of the Reuben James, Tex Edwards, was a 1926 Naval Academy graduate who’d wrestled in the 1928 Olympics, coming in fourth.

While the sinking caused outrage in the United States, we did not declare war on Germany. It took the disaster at Pearl Harbor to thrust the country into World War II.

I’m always amazed at the history I learn while researching. One of the great perks of being a writer!

Here’s to the good men of the Reuben James. As long as their names are remembered, a part of them lives on!

Have you heard of a ship called the good Reuben James Manned by hard fighting men both of honor and fame? She flew the Stars and Stripes of the land of the free But tonight she’s in her grave at the bottom of the sea.

Tell me what were their names, tell me what were their names, Did you have a friend on the good Reuben James? What were their names, tell me, what were their names? Did you have a friend on the good Reuben James

Well, a hundred men went down in that dark watery grave When that good ship went down only forty-four were saved. ‘Twas the last day of October we saved the forty-four From the cold ocean waters and the cold icy shore.

It was there in the dark of that uncertain night That we watched for the U-boats and waited for a fight. Then a whine and a rock and a great explosion roared And they laid the Reuben James on that cold ocean floor.

Now tonight there are lights in our country so bright In the farms and in the cities they’re telling of the fight. And now our mighty battleships will steam the bounding main And remember the name of that good Reuben James.

The conflict box is a way of diagramming the core conflict in your story. Fill each box out one at a time or else you’ll get overwhelmed. In our Writing Scenic Workshop, we first spend a lot of time honing down idea. Then we move on to the Conflict Box. It’s amazing what a simple diagram can bring out. Do you know who your protagonist is? Who your antagonist is? And remember, goal is not motivation. Goal is something concrete, external.